Start or Join a Spiritual Aging Study and Support Group
The Power of Growing Older, Wiser and Fiercer Together
TO START A STUDY AND SUPPORT GROUP: Who are Your Four?
Question:
1.) Who is it amongst your peers that you can talk to about anything?
2.) Who would you like to get to know better?
3.) Who have you lost touch with and would like to reconnect?
4.) Who is it you can tell would like to be friends but you haven’t reciprocated?
Answer: These are Your Four and now the five of you can easily and organically form the basis of a Spiritual Aging Study and Support Group (SASS) and experience, as many did in the early days of women’s liberation, the power of joining together for study and support. Grassroots SASS groups are popping up around the world—both in-person and online—using the study guides I’m posting here to lead the meeting. The subject matter is deep and wide-ranging, from cultivating freedom, finding joy in unexpected circumstances and navigating changing relationships to viewing age-related loss as spiritual practice—and more. We hope you’ll join us!
Which is where this post comes in. tips on getting your own SASS started in August.
Why: Aging is daunting enough in the best of times. But in these fraught days, when negative images of aging bombard us daily, we are in desperate need of an at once reality-based but inspiring vision for growing older that ensures us that aging is a life stage with meaning and purpose of its own. You don’t have to do aging alone!
Getting Started:
1.) Identify Your Four (or more) and share this post with them. Work out a time and place that works for you all, for either in-person or online gatherings. A lot of the grassroots groups enjoy meeting over coffee at a café or in each others’ homes. Others are piggy-backing on existing book club, social and study groups already meeting in religious or community settings. An alternative model would be to meet on Zoom or its equivalent.
2.) The first of each month, beginning August 1, check for a brand new Old Souls Study and Support Group Guide which includes a reflection on a particular topic, discussion questions, my additional commentary and/or group spiritual exercise. (For an example, click HERE.) Set your first meeting for any time in August and monthly thereafter.
3.) The study guides we’re working with through 2024 are based on readings taken from my best-selling book Older, Wiser, Fiercer. Purchase of the book is optional as the bi-weekly guides stand on their own.
4.) In 2025, the study guides go weekly and the focus will move from Older, Wiser, Fiercer to weekly readings from my new book Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life. (Inner Traditions, December 10, 2024.)
The study guides are free through 2024 at which time we evolve into a paid membership organization. (Pledge now and you lock in the current membership rate at $10/month even though you won’t begin paying until January.
Tips on Running a Support Group:
1.) The study guides provide a format and the content for the meeting so anyone can lead the discussion. No preparation is necessary although it would be helpful for that week’s leader to have read the larger original reading upon which that week’s study guide is based to draw upon..
2.) Ideal length is 90 minutes, but one to two hours can work, too.
3.) In larger groups, it’s a good idea to do break-out groups of 2 or 3, 10-15 minutes long periodically during the meeting, then reconvene for the larger group discussion.
Note: If your group would like to meet more often than once a month, you can supplement the monthly posts with the four guides already in the archives. For access, click HERE.
Please let me know your plans to start a SASS or how your SASS is doing by emailing me directly at Carol@Carolorsborn.com.
TO JOIN AN EXISTING (IN PROCESS) SPIRITUAL AGING STUDY AND SUPPORT GROUP:
1.) Spiritual Aging Online Support Group
Spiritual Aging is building the foundation of a Spiritual Aging Study and Support Group (SASS) that will meet 24/7 right here at Substack. We are getting to know one another now through my posts and study guides and your responses, which is exciting and promising. In January, I will continue to post blogs for free but SASS will become a paid membership with a committed core of fellow travelers growing older, wiser and fiercer together through a private chat room.
2.) Gathering of Old Souls
Women are invited to join me and a circle of your peers to talk about what matters most at our age and stage in life. The on-going circle, hosted by Spirit of Sophia, meets every other month.
Meeting sinclude group discussions, stimulating questions and smaller breakout groups as we deepen the conversation about the many aspects of conscious aging.
The circle meets on the second Tuesday of the month from 12:00 noon to 1:30 PM (EST)
September 10
What’s Stopping You? Removing blockages to get what you came here for
Suggested Reading: Older, Wiser, Fiercer: Fierce with Age
November 12
When Life Matters Most: Dealing with issues of ultimate concern
Suggested Reading: The Making of an Old Soul: Fulfilling Life’s Promise
Sessions for $38.50 per circle. Register HERE at: https://spiritofsophia.org/a-gathering-of-old-souls/
3.) A Year of Reflection: Global Zoom Support Group
Stay tuned for exciting news for 2025 as Spiritual Aging Study and Support Groups go online via Zoom globally in partnership with the leading organization in the field of conscious and spiritual aging!
Here’s to starting your own SASS and to growing older, wiser and fiercer together,
Fiercely Yours,
Carol Orsborn